Chapter Thirteen
Robyn woke the next morning feeling rather grim. It was the first night she and Matt had slept in separate beds since his dad’s return, simply because he’d insisted she should have an early night and not work behind the bar as she seemed, to use his term, rather ‘peaky.’ He was worried she’d caught a chill while they were decorating the tree, and for once Robyn hadn’t argued. She did feel exhausted, and this morning her head burned whilst her scratchy throat made it hard to swallow.
She shuffled to the small kettle in her bedroom which she normally used to make her first coffee of the day, knowing she was like a bear with a sore head until she’d had that first hit of caffeine. Today, though, Robyn swapped to a hot honey and lemon, swilling back two Ibuprofen for good measure as well, in the hopes of nipping whatever this illness was in the bud.
The sudden lack of warmth from her duvet emphasized the shiver which racked her small frame and so Robyn was back under the covers within minutes, cradling the soothing drink to her.
A gentle knock came on the door, “Robyn, love, you awake?”
“Yes, you don’t need to knock,” she forced herself into a sitting position.
Matt’s head poked around her bedroom door, “Dad and I have to go to another couple of appointments, take some documents and, well, we’ll be gone for a few hours. Are you feeling okay enough to give the bar a quick polish and restack the clean glasses?”
“Of course,” Robyn didn’t want to let on that she wasn’t feeling well at all, as Matt had enough on his plate right now. She needed to earn her keep. Besides, it was likely just a cold coming on.
If he’d given her a kiss goodbye or touched her skin in any way, Matt would’ve felt that Robyn was burning up. As it was, his mind was already elsewhere and so he gave her a quick wave from the doorway and hurried back down the landing.
A shower and fresh clothes did nothing other than use up Robyn’s small reserve of energy for the day. She knew that neither Matt nor Dennis would mind if she went back to bed instead of getting the downstairs sorted, but they’d been so good to her and she didn’t like to feel like she wasn’t pulling her weight, so Robyn soldiered on.
With Celine Dion blasting from the speakers and her duster making rhythmic moves on the bar top, it took several moments of hammering from the other side of the main doors to catch her attention.
Since this was a quiet, rural area with hardly any crime, Robyn opened the door without a second thought, knowing it was normally a local who’d forgotten a cap or suchlike the night before. This time it wasn’t one of their regulars, however.
“Adam?” Robyn croaked the name past the pain in her throat.
“I got your text, about the band playing on the twenty-third. There was no reason to use a ruse, sweetheart, you could’ve just come out and told me you’d changed your mind about touring with us.” He pushed past her into the pub and leaned up against the bar as if he owned the place.
For the first time in many years, Robyn’s gut told her this wasn’t a situation she wanted to be in. She believed in the power of intuition – women’s intuition in particular – so she deliberately left the door open, ignoring the swirling blizzard which was now inching its way inside and intensifying her own shivers.
“I haven’t changed my mind, just, ah, needed a reliable band doing the right covers,” she positioned herself near the door, feeling the wetness of the snowflakes hitting her back through her thin t-shirt.
“Now, we both know that’s not true, don’t we, Princess? Why all the game playing? I really don’t have time for it. We both felt the chemistry back at the festival, you can’t deny it any more than I can.”
When the Oakettes had sung at a local county show late that summer, they’d shared the backstage with Adam and his bandmates. There’d been some friendly banter, but they must’ve spent no more than twenty minutes in each other’s company, hence why Robyn had been surprised to get the tour offer a few weeks later.
“I really don’t feel anything of the sor…” Robyn began, caught off guard when he cornered her up against the wall next to the door, out of view from the outside.
He smelt of stale cigarettes and last night’s cheap beer, and although he was only a few inches taller than the petite woman herself, Robyn suddenly felt too weak to defend herself against his advances. Her usual fight was gone, drowned by whatever was causing her temperature to rise and her defences to fall.
“What’s going on here?”
Robyn had never been so happy nor so relieved to hear Matt’s voice.
As if not even having the sense he was born with, the other man stayed where he was, his hand on her arm, his face close to her neck, meaning it took only one quick look for Matt to know that this bloke needed to be removed.
“Out!” He shouted, lifting the much smaller man by the top of his biker jacket and practically throwing him into the snow before slamming the door closed.
“Did he hurt you? Shall I go back out there and teach him a lesson? Who the heck was he? You’re boiling and shivering,” Matt’s questions came out as quick volleys in his adrenaline-fuelled state as he pulled Robyn gently into the safety of his own embrace, kissing the top of her head gently and rubbing soothing circles on her back.
Tears wracked her, shudders overtook her body as Robyn melted into him, barely able to support her own weight, certainly not able to form coherent sentences to explain everything.
“Right, I’m so sorry love but Dad and I are running late, I just came back to get the papers he’s forgotten,” he spoke as he carried her up the stairs, taking them two at a time as if Robyn weighed no more than a feather, “gah, but I don’t want to leave you. Not in this state,” His eyes were wild, his expression pained as he lowered her slowly back onto her bed.
“I’ll be fine, nothing really happened, can explain later,” Robyn whispered, shuffling under the blankets so that only her head remained visible.
Matt took a deep breath, slowing his movements, and took time to really focus on her, “You’ve had a shock, that… scene I walked in on… seemed bad, love, do I need to call anyone? The constable?”
“What? No!”
“Okay, good, good, but you’re burning up Rubes and it seems I came back just in, just in time,” his own voice quaked then and Matt bent down to rest his forehead on hers, “perhaps the doctor?”
“I’ll be fine till you get back, really, go and help your dad, just remember to lock me in, please,” Robyn tried to make the words sound as believable as possible, even though what she really wanted was to be held and rocked, reassured that everything was okay.
Matt didn’t seem convinced, but he was torn and the clock was ticking.
“Right, well, you stay in bed, please Ruby, don’t move except for the bathroom. I’ll get you a glass of water so you can just snuggle down and sleep. I’ll be three hours, max, okay love?”
“Okay,” she whispered, holding back the tears until he was out of her bedroom before letting the floodgates open once more.